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"title": "What's Next For California's Offshore Wind Industry?",
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"headTitle": "What’s Next For California’s Offshore Wind Industry? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, October 22, 2024…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2024-07/cec-adopts-offshore-wind-energy-strategic-plan-support-californias-100-clean#:~:text=The%20plan%20outlines%20analysis%20and,to%20power%2025%20million%20homes.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, state energy officials approved a strategic master plan to start developing enormous offshore wind farms in the waters off the coast, with hundreds of wind turbines each the size of the Eiffel Tower sitting atop floating platforms. But what’s on tap for the growing industry? \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s day 2 of a strike by thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Southern California. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/health/kaiser-mental-health-workers-strike-day-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 100 picketed \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">outside the healthcare provider’s medical center on Sunset Blvd. Monday.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Health officials in Merced County \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofmerced.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2621\">have confirmed\u003c/a> its first human case of bird flu.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>California Looks To Offshore Wind As Next Green Energy Source \u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/07/california-offshore-wind-plan-approved/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In July\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the California Energy Commission unanimously approved a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/reports/ab-525-reports-offshore-renewable-energy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sweeping plan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to develop a massive floating offshore wind industry in ocean waters — a first-of-its-kind undertaking that will require billions in public and private investments and could transform parts of the coast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The new state plan sets the path for harnessing wind power from hundreds of giant turbines, each as tall as a 70-story building, floating in the ocean about 20 miles off Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay. The untapped energy is expected to become a major power source as California electrifies vehicles and switches to clean energy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adam Stern, Executive Director of Offshore Wind California, an industry group, outlines the next steps now that the plan has been unveiled. “The two next most important steps have to do with ports and transmission in ports. We need to get the areas in our ports ready to support offshore wind so they can withstand the weight of the towers and turbines that will be assembled on them,” Stern said. “We also need to develop the supply chain that will be centered in perhaps as many as a dozen ports along California’s coast.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Energy Commission’s plan estimates that just the work to upgrade California’s ports will cost $11-$12 billion, much of it publicly funded. The plan identifies the large ports of Humboldt, Long Beach and Los Angeles as viable for storing, staging and assembling parts needed for offshore wind operations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/health/kaiser-mental-health-workers-strike-day-1\">\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 26px\">Kaiser Mental Health Workers Hit The Picket Line In Los Angeles\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers are picketing for a second day across Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser mental health professionals approved a strike earlier this month after the National Union of Healthcare Workers and Kaiser could not come to a contract agreement. Kaiser workers said they want the HMO to provide employees seven hours of guaranteed time per week to handle things like emails, filling out patient charts and other duties, and they want the HMO to restore pensions and agree to better pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bargaining sessions are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Merced County Reports Its First Human Bird Flu Case \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofmerced.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2621\">has confirmed\u003c/a> its first human case of H5N1 bird flu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dairy worker is believed to have been infected directly from infected cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human bird flu cases have also been confirmed in Tulare and Kings counties. So far, the state has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/NR24-035.aspx\">confirmed 13 human cases\u003c/a>. All of those who have tested positive have experienced mild symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, October 22, 2024…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/news/2024-07/cec-adopts-offshore-wind-energy-strategic-plan-support-californias-100-clean#:~:text=The%20plan%20outlines%20analysis%20and,to%20power%2025%20million%20homes.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earlier this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, state energy officials approved a strategic master plan to start developing enormous offshore wind farms in the waters off the coast, with hundreds of wind turbines each the size of the Eiffel Tower sitting atop floating platforms. But what’s on tap for the growing industry? \u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s day 2 of a strike by thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Southern California. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/health/kaiser-mental-health-workers-strike-day-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 100 picketed \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">outside the healthcare provider’s medical center on Sunset Blvd. Monday.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Health officials in Merced County \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofmerced.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2621\">have confirmed\u003c/a> its first human case of bird flu.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>California Looks To Offshore Wind As Next Green Energy Source \u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2024/07/california-offshore-wind-plan-approved/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In July\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the California Energy Commission unanimously approved a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/reports/ab-525-reports-offshore-renewable-energy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sweeping plan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to develop a massive floating offshore wind industry in ocean waters — a first-of-its-kind undertaking that will require billions in public and private investments and could transform parts of the coast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The new state plan sets the path for harnessing wind power from hundreds of giant turbines, each as tall as a 70-story building, floating in the ocean about 20 miles off Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay. The untapped energy is expected to become a major power source as California electrifies vehicles and switches to clean energy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adam Stern, Executive Director of Offshore Wind California, an industry group, outlines the next steps now that the plan has been unveiled. “The two next most important steps have to do with ports and transmission in ports. We need to get the areas in our ports ready to support offshore wind so they can withstand the weight of the towers and turbines that will be assembled on them,” Stern said. “We also need to develop the supply chain that will be centered in perhaps as many as a dozen ports along California’s coast.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Energy Commission’s plan estimates that just the work to upgrade California’s ports will cost $11-$12 billion, much of it publicly funded. The plan identifies the large ports of Humboldt, Long Beach and Los Angeles as viable for storing, staging and assembling parts needed for offshore wind operations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/health/kaiser-mental-health-workers-strike-day-1\">\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 26px\">Kaiser Mental Health Workers Hit The Picket Line In Los Angeles\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers are picketing for a second day across Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiser mental health professionals approved a strike earlier this month after the National Union of Healthcare Workers and Kaiser could not come to a contract agreement. Kaiser workers said they want the HMO to provide employees seven hours of guaranteed time per week to handle things like emails, filling out patient charts and other duties, and they want the HMO to restore pensions and agree to better pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bargaining sessions are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Merced County Reports Its First Human Bird Flu Case \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://www.countyofmerced.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2621\">has confirmed\u003c/a> its first human case of H5N1 bird flu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dairy worker is believed to have been infected directly from infected cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Human bird flu cases have also been confirmed in Tulare and Kings counties. So far, the state has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/NR24-035.aspx\">confirmed 13 human cases\u003c/a>. All of those who have tested positive have experienced mild symptoms.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "central-valley-students-find-connection-and-belonging-through-japanese-drumming",
"title": "Central Valley Students Find Connection and Belonging Through Japanese Drumming",
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"content": "\u003cp>The tiny Central Valley farming community of Ballico in Merced County sits in the middle of acres of almond orchards. Other than farmland, there’s not a whole lot to see: a park, a small Veterans Memorial Building and a mini-mart called Mom and Pops. But head down the street to Ballico Elementary School and you’ll find there’s plenty to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the school’s auditorium, which also functions as a gym and a cafeteria, kids practice Taiko — a traditional style of Japanese drumming — year-round. They perform year-round, too, at festivals, schools and just about anywhere they get asked to exhibit their drumming skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On this day last spring, about 20 students played for their peers. The drummers jumped up and down as they beat their sticks on handmade Taiko drums. They lifted their sticks high in the air and then hit them hard on the drum heads. They stepped to the left and then to the right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001898\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01.jpg\" alt=\"Several children and an adult woman wearing a blue shirt look at and touch drums in a gymnasium.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taiko teacher Christine Kubo works with students at Ballico Elementary School to set up drums in preparation for a school concert. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Yassei Yassei” they yelled out — words meant to encourage each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With Taiko, I kind of came out of my shell,” says sixth-grader Edward Souza, who credits Taiko with giving him a sense of belonging. “I got new friends. I actually got more comfortable with performing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighth-grader Lily Kubo noted how physical the art form is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing is that my forearms have about doubled in size since I began, which is always good,” Lily says, “because now I can help my parents bring in the groceries with, like, no problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lily’s family has attended “Ballico school,” as it’s lovingly called since it first opened a century ago. Back then, many of the students were Japanese Americans whose parents grew crops like peaches, grapes and strawberries. Today, the students at this small rural school come from many backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001899\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001899\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02.jpg\" alt=\"Several children and two adults hold and play large drums in a gym.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taiko players at Ballico Elementary School do a pre-concert practice. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Christine Kubo — who is a distant relative of Lily’s — started the Taiko program 16 years ago when she was a teacher at the school. One of her goals is to give kids from different backgrounds an opportunity to work and play together as a community. Another is to give them context about the agricultural region where they live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a way of having students be able to express themselves and to do that collaboratively and maybe on the side, they can pick up a little Japanese American culture,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kubo grew up near a U.S. Navy base in post-World War II Japan. Her mom is Japanese and her dad was Japanese American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, we saw festivals in Japan all the time, and so the people who were in these parades, playing in the festivals, people who were playing on drums were always men,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came to the U.S. for college, she was excited to see women playing Taiko. Eventually, she joined a Taiko group at her Buddhist temple in Stockton. She taught three of her own five children to play, and then other kids at Ballico school begged her to teach them. So she did.[aside postID=\"arts_13954716,arts_13927476,arts_13917790\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really enjoy it when we get to travel around and teach people about Taiko and Japanese American history,” Lily says. “For me, it means connecting with my family and my heritage as well as, like, getting friends involved into it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lily’s great-grandfather owned a farm that was part of a nearby Japanese American farming community. \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">During World War II, the family was forced to go first to the Merced Assembly Center and then to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/amch/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amache Incarceration Camp\u003c/a> near Granada, Colorado.\u003c/span> They were there for three years before they could return home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, the Japanese American farmers near Ballico remained close-knit and gathered for celebrations like Obon to honor their ancestors. That tradition continues today for Ballico Taiko: the kids play at Obon festivals in the summertime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04.jpg\" alt=\"A man and a woman wearing glasses and blue shirts sit facing the camera.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Kubo (left) started the Taiko program 16 years ago when she was a teacher at Ballico Elementary School. Her husband, Dan, makes some of the drums the students use, including dozens of practice drums. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dan Kubo, Christine’s husband, has made some of the drums the students use. He learned from the first professional Taiko drummaker in the U.S., Mark Miyoshi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The secret to North American Taiko drums is the fact that we can use wine barrels and rawhide, relatively common materials to build these drums,” says Dan, who grew up here on a farm after World War II. His family had also been sent to Amache.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan has also made dozens of practice drums for the group. The practice drums are made from thick industrial cardboard tubes. The heads are made from packing tape placed in a radial design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether the kids are playing on practice drums or wine barrels, they say they feel a powerful connection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you start playing Taiko, you kind of absorb it,” Edward Souza says. “You get absorbed into the song.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Christine Kubo founded the \"Ballico school\" in Merced County that teaches students Taiko, traditional Japanese drumming. Students practice and perform year-round at different events.",
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"title": "Central Valley Students Find Connection and Belonging Through Japanese Drumming | KQED",
"description": "Christine Kubo founded the "Ballico school" in Merced County that teaches students Taiko, traditional Japanese drumming. Students practice and perform year-round at different events.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The tiny Central Valley farming community of Ballico in Merced County sits in the middle of acres of almond orchards. Other than farmland, there’s not a whole lot to see: a park, a small Veterans Memorial Building and a mini-mart called Mom and Pops. But head down the street to Ballico Elementary School and you’ll find there’s plenty to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the school’s auditorium, which also functions as a gym and a cafeteria, kids practice Taiko — a traditional style of Japanese drumming — year-round. They perform year-round, too, at festivals, schools and just about anywhere they get asked to exhibit their drumming skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On this day last spring, about 20 students played for their peers. The drummers jumped up and down as they beat their sticks on handmade Taiko drums. They lifted their sticks high in the air and then hit them hard on the drum heads. They stepped to the left and then to the right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001898\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01.jpg\" alt=\"Several children and an adult woman wearing a blue shirt look at and touch drums in a gymnasium.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-01-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taiko teacher Christine Kubo works with students at Ballico Elementary School to set up drums in preparation for a school concert. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Yassei Yassei” they yelled out — words meant to encourage each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With Taiko, I kind of came out of my shell,” says sixth-grader Edward Souza, who credits Taiko with giving him a sense of belonging. “I got new friends. I actually got more comfortable with performing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eighth-grader Lily Kubo noted how physical the art form is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thing is that my forearms have about doubled in size since I began, which is always good,” Lily says, “because now I can help my parents bring in the groceries with, like, no problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lily’s family has attended “Ballico school,” as it’s lovingly called since it first opened a century ago. Back then, many of the students were Japanese Americans whose parents grew crops like peaches, grapes and strawberries. Today, the students at this small rural school come from many backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001899\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001899\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02.jpg\" alt=\"Several children and two adults hold and play large drums in a gym.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taiko players at Ballico Elementary School do a pre-concert practice. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Christine Kubo — who is a distant relative of Lily’s — started the Taiko program 16 years ago when she was a teacher at the school. One of her goals is to give kids from different backgrounds an opportunity to work and play together as a community. Another is to give them context about the agricultural region where they live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a way of having students be able to express themselves and to do that collaboratively and maybe on the side, they can pick up a little Japanese American culture,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kubo grew up near a U.S. Navy base in post-World War II Japan. Her mom is Japanese and her dad was Japanese American.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, we saw festivals in Japan all the time, and so the people who were in these parades, playing in the festivals, people who were playing on drums were always men,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came to the U.S. for college, she was excited to see women playing Taiko. Eventually, she joined a Taiko group at her Buddhist temple in Stockton. She taught three of her own five children to play, and then other kids at Ballico school begged her to teach them. So she did.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really enjoy it when we get to travel around and teach people about Taiko and Japanese American history,” Lily says. “For me, it means connecting with my family and my heritage as well as, like, getting friends involved into it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lily’s great-grandfather owned a farm that was part of a nearby Japanese American farming community. \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">During World War II, the family was forced to go first to the Merced Assembly Center and then to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/amch/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amache Incarceration Camp\u003c/a> near Granada, Colorado.\u003c/span> They were there for three years before they could return home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, the Japanese American farmers near Ballico remained close-knit and gathered for celebrations like Obon to honor their ancestors. That tradition continues today for Ballico Taiko: the kids play at Obon festivals in the summertime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04.jpg\" alt=\"A man and a woman wearing glasses and blue shirts sit facing the camera.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240826-Ballico-Taiko-AD-04-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christine Kubo (left) started the Taiko program 16 years ago when she was a teacher at Ballico Elementary School. Her husband, Dan, makes some of the drums the students use, including dozens of practice drums. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dan Kubo, Christine’s husband, has made some of the drums the students use. He learned from the first professional Taiko drummaker in the U.S., Mark Miyoshi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The secret to North American Taiko drums is the fact that we can use wine barrels and rawhide, relatively common materials to build these drums,” says Dan, who grew up here on a farm after World War II. His family had also been sent to Amache.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan has also made dozens of practice drums for the group. The practice drums are made from thick industrial cardboard tubes. The heads are made from packing tape placed in a radial design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether the kids are playing on practice drums or wine barrels, they say they feel a powerful connection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you start playing Taiko, you kind of absorb it,” Edward Souza says. “You get absorbed into the song.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "these-numbers-seem-suspect-officials-didnt-trust-foster-farms-covid-19-data-during-plant-outbreak-emails-show",
"title": "‘These Numbers Seem Suspect’: Officials Didn’t Trust Foster Farms’ COVID-19 Data During Plant Outbreak, Emails Show",
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"headTitle": "‘These Numbers Seem Suspect’: Officials Didn’t Trust Foster Farms’ COVID-19 Data During Plant Outbreak, Emails Show | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]y the time Merced County public health officials were able to track down accurate information about a COVID-19 outbreak at a local Foster Farms plant last year, seven workers were already dead, and more would die in the following weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-August, when the California Department of Public Health requested the number of positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths that were tied to the growing outbreak at the company’s plant in Livingston, Merced County’s supervising epidemiologist Kristynn Sullivan passed along the data, with the disclaimer that officials had just learned of five previously unreported deaths on Aug. 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They [Foster Farms] did not inform us of any hospitalizations prior to 8/14, and as you know they did not inform the additional five fatalities until 8/14,” Sullivan wrote in an \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471636-sullivan-additional-five\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aug. 20 email\u003c/a>.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp, Merced County public health director\"]‘This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California.’[/pullquote]Minutes later, Dr. Salvador Sandoval, the county’s health officer, sent a \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">follow-up \u003c/a>email saying he’d just been informed by a union representative that another worker at the plant had died the night before: “Foster Farms hasn’t let us know about him. So now we have 8 deaths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In newly released emails from that time period, Merced County health officials repeatedly expressed skepticism about the outbreak information they were receiving from the poultry company, saying they believed the company hadn’t tested its entire workforce and was not providing reliable data. Ultimately, nearly 400 workers were sickened in connection to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Livingston outbreak, \u003c/a>nine of whom died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The information comes to light as Foster Farms argues, in an\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\"> ongoing court case,\u003c/a> that further oversight of the company’s efforts to protect its workers from COVID-19 is unwarranted. It also arises amid recently confirmed reports of another major outbreak at one of the company’s plants in Fresno, where at least 193 workers were infected late last year. Two of those workers died from complications related to COVID-19 in January, according to a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) spokesperson, raising that facility’s COVID-19 death toll to at least five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company argues it has aggressively implemented safety and testing protocols, and says it recently began administering the Moderna vaccine to 1,000 workers at the Fresno plant in partnership with the county’s public health department and Vons Pharmacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to questions about the emails. An earlier statement from the company said it is committed to the health and welfare of its employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails, obtained by KQED through public records requests, show a county health department struggling to coerce Foster Farms to fulfill its obligations under California law and report the deaths of its employees to Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of the obtained emails, sent in July, a county health official urged the company to report a recent fatality to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been trying to reach out to you about this matter. It is required that this information be shared with Cal OSHA within 24 hours of the death,” county Epidemiologist Sydney Loewen \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471631-first-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote in an email to the company\u003c/a> on July 22. “Please reach out to us ASAP. If we do not hear from you we will need to report the death ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks later, on Aug. 5, a Merced County Department of Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20469518-aug-5-directive-split\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">directive\u003c/a> instructed Foster Farms to implement a new COVID-19 testing protocol and report any hospitalizations to the county. The following week, after consulting state health officials, it asked the company to also report any known deaths. A day later, on Aug. 14, the company reported five more deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that prior to Aug. 14, county health officials had been made aware of some deaths tied to the outbreak, but not all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Public Health Director Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp later \u003ca href=\"https://mercedcountyca.new.swagit.com/videos/75731\">told the county Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> that the number of known COVID-19 deaths connected to the Livingston plant more than tripled that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"foster-farms\"]“This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California,” she said at the mid-September meeting. “This is not \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a big deal. This is a significantly large deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear if, or when, the company reported the deaths and hospitalizations of its employees to Cal/OSHA. The agency provided the number of deaths and hospitalizations reported last year in connection to Foster Farms’ facilities in the region. KQED has requested and is waiting for clarification on which reports are specific to the Livingston plant. Failure to immediately report a workplace fatality, serious injury or illness to Cal/OSHA is punishable by a fine of at least $5,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has recently come under fire from labor advocates and state legislators who say California’s system, which relies on employers self-reporting COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations to regulators, has led to severe undercounting and inadequate data about outbreaks tied to workplaces. In an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article248847034.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Sacramento Bee\u003c/a> this week, a Foster Farms spokesman defended the company’s record, insisting it had reported to the state at least 21 COVID-19 deaths tied to its California facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has multiple open inspections at Foster Farms’ California facilities and has yet to issue any violations or penalties in connection with the outbreaks at the plants in Livingston or Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth] “The emails demonstrate that it was a challenge to get accurate workplace data from the employer,” Ana Padilla, executive director of UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, said. “We can’t wait for there to already be a massive workplace outbreak before any reporting happens. Workers deserve to know if their lives are at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap] preliminary injunction issued by a Merced County judge on Jan. 29 requires Foster Farms to continue complying with 20 COVID-19 workplace safety rules, the latest development in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed against the company in December by the United Farm Workers union and two Livingston plant employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>Foster Farms’ attorneys have argued the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">court order\u003c/a> is an unnecessary overstep because Merced County’s health department and Cal/OSHA already exercise oversight of the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But emails exchanged between late July and August show county health officials repeatedly expressed distrust of the information Foster Farms has reported about worker fatalities and infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and county health officials involved in the July and August email exchanges did not respond to requests for comment. A CDPH spokesperson said the agency communicated at the time with local public health officials in all other counties where there are Foster Farms plants, “to offer technical assistance for workers protection and current or future outbreaks at other facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Merced County spokesperson said the health department did not have anyone available to provide a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that these documents show pretty clearly that the county itself is concerned about their lack of transparency and the full truth of what they’re hearing, and the fact that they didn’t bother to report these deaths, is astonishing,” said Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing UFW in the civil suit against the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of this week, 560 workers at the plant who were represented by the UFW voted to decertify the union. Elizabeth Strater, a UFW spokeswoman, said its civil case against the poultry company “will proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11858934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11858934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms’ S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9, 2020. A major outbreak at the plant late last year infected at least 193 people. A Cal/OSHA spokesman recently confirmed two more employees of the facility have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 21, the day after county health officials learned of the eight total deaths, Foster Farms sent an email reporting that five workers at its Livingston plant had so far tested positive, of the 1,449 employees that it tested. But it said over a third of those test results were still pending. Robert O’Connor, the company’s veterinarian and senior vice president of technical operations, wrote to county health officials that “the prevalence detected is quite low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several days later, Dr. Sandoval, Merced County’s health officer, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471629-suspect-chart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a> to colleagues, “These numbers seem suspect. I will try to find out if they are only checking regular employees, and not temporary workers, which I suspect.” He added, “The positivity rate is also way below our testing positivity rate of 12.1% overall in the county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms has argued in court filings that, despite outbreaks tied to its workplaces, the testing positivity rate of its workers has been lower than the surrounding community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same day, while relaying to state officials the number of hospitalizations that Foster Farms had reported during a two-week period, Sullivan, the county’s epidemiologist, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471637-sullivan-trust-the-least\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a>, “These are the numbers I trust the least. Because I don’t believe they have a consistent way of gathering this information.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails show California’s public health department discussed reaching out to other local health departments where Foster Farms operates since it seemed to be difficult for county health officials to get information directly from the company.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe\"]‘This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that.’[/pullquote]“We’re thinking about putting out some messaging from CDPH to counties that have a FF facility in or around them to have them ask about employment at FF during case interviews,” Dr. Christina Armatas, a CDPH public health officer, wrote to county health officials on Aug. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is darkly remarkable to see health officials discussing screening the public for Foster Farms employment as a risk factor in case interviews,” UFW spokeswoman Strater said. “This also shows that no outbreak is purely just a worksite issue — an outbreak is a public health issue that affects all of us. Workers and their communities deserve better. Essential should not mean sacrificial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County personnel also requested that Foster Farms apply the more thorough testing efforts now being administered in Livingston to the company’s other plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are creating a Statewide standard for managing COVID-19 outbreaks in food processing facilities,” Merced County Environmental Health Division Director Vicki Jones wrote to the company on Aug. 13. “It would be very beneficial and appreciated if you could share these protocols with the other Foster Farms processing facilities in California, as I understand they are now beginning to deal with similar challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AB 685\u003c/a>, which went into effect on Jan. 1, requires California employers to notify local health departments of COVID-19 outbreaks, positive cases and fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We learned more and more, the longer that we were involved in that bill, the need for a clear, statewide reporting standard and a clear, publicly available database of where outbreaks were occurring. And we didn’t have either one of those,” said Mitch Steiger, legislative advocate with the California Labor Federation, which co-sponsored and helped develop the legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law also requires local health departments to send the state all employer-reported COVID-19 outbreak data. To date, CDHP has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID-19-Outbreak-Data.aspx\">not posted any on its site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The obligation to report to local health departments began recently and we will be providing information soon,” a CDPH spokesperson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that,” said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, an advocacy group. “This data needs to be collected and reported properly. It’s increasingly clear and very concerning that that’s not happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Newly released records show public health officials doubted the information the poultry company provided during a COVID-19 outbreak last year that resulted in close to 400 infections and nine deaths.",
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"title": "‘These Numbers Seem Suspect’: Officials Didn’t Trust Foster Farms’ COVID-19 Data During Plant Outbreak, Emails Show | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>y the time Merced County public health officials were able to track down accurate information about a COVID-19 outbreak at a local Foster Farms plant last year, seven workers were already dead, and more would die in the following weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-August, when the California Department of Public Health requested the number of positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths that were tied to the growing outbreak at the company’s plant in Livingston, Merced County’s supervising epidemiologist Kristynn Sullivan passed along the data, with the disclaimer that officials had just learned of five previously unreported deaths on Aug. 14.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They [Foster Farms] did not inform us of any hospitalizations prior to 8/14, and as you know they did not inform the additional five fatalities until 8/14,” Sullivan wrote in an \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471636-sullivan-additional-five\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aug. 20 email\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Minutes later, Dr. Salvador Sandoval, the county’s health officer, sent a \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471634-sandoval-eight\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">follow-up \u003c/a>email saying he’d just been informed by a union representative that another worker at the plant had died the night before: “Foster Farms hasn’t let us know about him. So now we have 8 deaths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In newly released emails from that time period, Merced County health officials repeatedly expressed skepticism about the outbreak information they were receiving from the poultry company, saying they believed the company hadn’t tested its entire workforce and was not providing reliable data. Ultimately, nearly 400 workers were sickened in connection to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Livingston outbreak, \u003c/a>nine of whom died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The information comes to light as Foster Farms argues, in an\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\"> ongoing court case,\u003c/a> that further oversight of the company’s efforts to protect its workers from COVID-19 is unwarranted. It also arises amid recently confirmed reports of another major outbreak at one of the company’s plants in Fresno, where at least 193 workers were infected late last year. Two of those workers died from complications related to COVID-19 in January, according to a California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) spokesperson, raising that facility’s COVID-19 death toll to at least five.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company argues it has aggressively implemented safety and testing protocols, and says it recently began administering the Moderna vaccine to 1,000 workers at the Fresno plant in partnership with the county’s public health department and Vons Pharmacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to questions about the emails. An earlier statement from the company said it is committed to the health and welfare of its employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails, obtained by KQED through public records requests, show a county health department struggling to coerce Foster Farms to fulfill its obligations under California law and report the deaths of its employees to Cal/OSHA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one of the obtained emails, sent in July, a county health official urged the company to report a recent fatality to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have been trying to reach out to you about this matter. It is required that this information be shared with Cal OSHA within 24 hours of the death,” county Epidemiologist Sydney Loewen \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471631-first-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote in an email to the company\u003c/a> on July 22. “Please reach out to us ASAP. If we do not hear from you we will need to report the death ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks later, on Aug. 5, a Merced County Department of Public Health \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20469518-aug-5-directive-split\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">directive\u003c/a> instructed Foster Farms to implement a new COVID-19 testing protocol and report any hospitalizations to the county. The following week, after consulting state health officials, it asked the company to also report any known deaths. A day later, on Aug. 14, the company reported five more deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that prior to Aug. 14, county health officials had been made aware of some deaths tied to the outbreak, but not all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Public Health Director Dr. Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp later \u003ca href=\"https://mercedcountyca.new.swagit.com/videos/75731\">told the county Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> that the number of known COVID-19 deaths connected to the Livingston plant more than tripled that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California,” she said at the mid-September meeting. “This is not \u003cem>not\u003c/em> a big deal. This is a significantly large deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear if, or when, the company reported the deaths and hospitalizations of its employees to Cal/OSHA. The agency provided the number of deaths and hospitalizations reported last year in connection to Foster Farms’ facilities in the region. KQED has requested and is waiting for clarification on which reports are specific to the Livingston plant. Failure to immediately report a workplace fatality, serious injury or illness to Cal/OSHA is punishable by a fine of at least $5,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency has recently come under fire from labor advocates and state legislators who say California’s system, which relies on employers self-reporting COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations to regulators, has led to severe undercounting and inadequate data about outbreaks tied to workplaces. In an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article248847034.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Sacramento Bee\u003c/a> this week, a Foster Farms spokesman defended the company’s record, insisting it had reported to the state at least 21 COVID-19 deaths tied to its California facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has multiple open inspections at Foster Farms’ California facilities and has yet to issue any violations or penalties in connection with the outbreaks at the plants in Livingston or Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “The emails demonstrate that it was a challenge to get accurate workplace data from the employer,” Ana Padilla, executive director of UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center, said. “We can’t wait for there to already be a massive workplace outbreak before any reporting happens. Workers deserve to know if their lives are at risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> preliminary injunction issued by a Merced County judge on Jan. 29 requires Foster Farms to continue complying with 20 COVID-19 workplace safety rules, the latest development in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> filed against the company in December by the United Farm Workers union and two Livingston plant employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003c/b>Foster Farms’ attorneys have argued the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11852681/judge-orders-foster-farms-to-comply-with-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">court order\u003c/a> is an unnecessary overstep because Merced County’s health department and Cal/OSHA already exercise oversight of the plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But emails exchanged between late July and August show county health officials repeatedly expressed distrust of the information Foster Farms has reported about worker fatalities and infections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and county health officials involved in the July and August email exchanges did not respond to requests for comment. A CDPH spokesperson said the agency communicated at the time with local public health officials in all other counties where there are Foster Farms plants, “to offer technical assistance for workers protection and current or future outbreaks at other facilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Merced County spokesperson said the health department did not have anyone available to provide a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact that these documents show pretty clearly that the county itself is concerned about their lack of transparency and the full truth of what they’re hearing, and the fact that they didn’t bother to report these deaths, is astonishing,” said Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing UFW in the civil suit against the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of this week, 560 workers at the plant who were represented by the UFW voted to decertify the union. Elizabeth Strater, a UFW spokeswoman, said its civil case against the poultry company “will proceed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11858934\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11858934\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS47071_IMG_7323-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms’ S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9, 2020. A major outbreak at the plant late last year infected at least 193 people. A Cal/OSHA spokesman recently confirmed two more employees of the facility have died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. \u003ccite>(Alexandra Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 21, the day after county health officials learned of the eight total deaths, Foster Farms sent an email reporting that five workers at its Livingston plant had so far tested positive, of the 1,449 employees that it tested. But it said over a third of those test results were still pending. Robert O’Connor, the company’s veterinarian and senior vice president of technical operations, wrote to county health officials that “the prevalence detected is quite low.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several days later, Dr. Sandoval, Merced County’s health officer, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471629-suspect-chart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a> to colleagues, “These numbers seem suspect. I will try to find out if they are only checking regular employees, and not temporary workers, which I suspect.” He added, “The positivity rate is also way below our testing positivity rate of 12.1% overall in the county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms has argued in court filings that, despite outbreaks tied to its workplaces, the testing positivity rate of its workers has been lower than the surrounding community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That same day, while relaying to state officials the number of hospitalizations that Foster Farms had reported during a two-week period, Sullivan, the county’s epidemiologist, \u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20471637-sullivan-trust-the-least\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote\u003c/a>, “These are the numbers I trust the least. Because I don’t believe they have a consistent way of gathering this information.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emails show California’s public health department discussed reaching out to other local health departments where Foster Farms operates since it seemed to be difficult for county health officials to get information directly from the company.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’re thinking about putting out some messaging from CDPH to counties that have a FF facility in or around them to have them ask about employment at FF during case interviews,” Dr. Christina Armatas, a CDPH public health officer, wrote to county health officials on Aug. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is darkly remarkable to see health officials discussing screening the public for Foster Farms employment as a risk factor in case interviews,” UFW spokeswoman Strater said. “This also shows that no outbreak is purely just a worksite issue — an outbreak is a public health issue that affects all of us. Workers and their communities deserve better. Essential should not mean sacrificial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County personnel also requested that Foster Farms apply the more thorough testing efforts now being administered in Livingston to the company’s other plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are creating a Statewide standard for managing COVID-19 outbreaks in food processing facilities,” Merced County Environmental Health Division Director Vicki Jones wrote to the company on Aug. 13. “It would be very beneficial and appreciated if you could share these protocols with the other Foster Farms processing facilities in California, as I understand they are now beginning to deal with similar challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new law, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AB 685\u003c/a>, which went into effect on Jan. 1, requires California employers to notify local health departments of COVID-19 outbreaks, positive cases and fatalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We learned more and more, the longer that we were involved in that bill, the need for a clear, statewide reporting standard and a clear, publicly available database of where outbreaks were occurring. And we didn’t have either one of those,” said Mitch Steiger, legislative advocate with the California Labor Federation, which co-sponsored and helped develop the legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new law also requires local health departments to send the state all employer-reported COVID-19 outbreak data. To date, CDHP has \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID-19-Outbreak-Data.aspx\">not posted any on its site\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The obligation to report to local health departments began recently and we will be providing information soon,” a CDPH spokesperson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is pretty basic. We are trying to manage an infectious disease epidemic and the state public health department and the counties need good information to do that,” said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, an advocacy group. “This data needs to be collected and reported properly. It’s increasingly clear and very concerning that that’s not happening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Judge Orders Foster Farms to Comply With COVID-19 Safety Rules",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Merced County judge is ordering Foster Farms to follow local, state and federal COVID-19 safety rules, finding Wednesday that Livingston plant workers and their union are likely to succeed on claims that the company engaged in unlawful business practices by failing to consistently comply with a county health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Livingston plant recently saw its second COVID-19 outbreak, with at least 48 employees testing positive as of early December. The plant was previously shut down for six days in September after 392 workers tested positive and nine died.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Merced County Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti\"]'Perhaps Foster Farms is not complying, or is unable to comply, or unwilling to comply or turning a blind eye.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argued in a Dec. 17\u003c/a> request for an emergency restraining order that Foster Farms has been operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines” on COVID-19 safety by requiring people to work within 6 feet of each other, failing to supply masks and keeping workers in the dark about positive cases at the plant, safety rules and sick pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti said the plaintiffs “have set forth sufficient evidence for the court to be concerned that perhaps Foster Farms is not complying, or is unable to comply, or unwilling to comply or turning a blind eye.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti ruled against the union and workers’ allegation that Foster Farms created a public nuisance by increasing the coronavirus spread in the broader community — acknowledging the company’s argument that the prevalence of COVID-19 at the Livingston plant is lower than that of Merced County’s general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the judge ruled against Foster Farms on another claim, finding that the company may have engaged in unfair business practices by failing to comply with an Aug. 28 health order issued by the Merced County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436841-united-farm-workers-of-america-et-al-vs-foster-poultry-farms-201223-adopted-tentative-ruling-tro-osc-preliminary-injunction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The ruling\u003c/a> lists 20 requirements the poultry company must comply with at its Livingston plant, including: providing face masks, staggering employee meal and start times, investigating close contacts of workers who test positive, ensuring infected employees do not come to work and informing all employees of testing requirements and any outbreaks that occur, and safety training in English, Spanish and Punjabi, among other requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order goes into effect in five days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plaintiff's attorneys said the ruling is likely the first court injunction in the U.S. against a meat processing plant over coronavirus safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court recognized that being an essential worker does not mean that your employer may put your life and health at unnecessary risk,\" attorney Monique Alonso said in a written statement. The plaintiffs plan to argue for mandatory 6-feet distancing between workers on production lines, which is not required under the court's Wednesday order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti said that while he believed the last thing Foster Farms wants is for the company’s employees to get sick, he was concerned for the health and safety of workers at the plant.[aside postID=\"news_11851959,news_11850332,news_11835677,news_11833224\" label=\"Outbreaks at Foster Farms\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the court’s ruling is “not imposing upon Foster Farms anything in addition to what it’s already agreed to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge referenced direction on COVID-19 safety in meat and poultry plants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms’ attorney argued the Merced County Department of Public Health and state and federal agencies are the primary authority on workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is, your honor, they’re asking you to kind of insert yourself into this process,” said Christian Rowley, Foster Farms’ attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is going to open a huge can of worms for the court in terms of determining what is going to happen with regard to operation of the plant. Is there a violation? Is there not a violation? But you can see where the lack of technical expertise in this area with respect to the court is becoming even more problematic,” Rowley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Proietti wrote in his ruling that guidance from regulatory agencies does not preclude a court from enforcing those rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hearing, Proietti said Foster Farms would have to actively monitor employees and supervisors to ensure they are following the guidelines in the court’s order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That means you have to resupply the masks, that means you have to discipline workers who refuse to follow the guidelines,” the judge said. “That’s something the employer has to take into consideration to make sure that their environment remains safe for the workplace and the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Foster Farms said the company “does not comment on active litigation in detail but believes that further adjudication will demonstrate that the company is already in compliance with required protective measures for its workforce and that the United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement also said Foster Farms is working with state and county health authorities to ensure that its workforce receives priority for the COVID-19 vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[documentcloud url=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436841-united-farm-workers-of-america-et-al-vs-foster-poultry-farms-201223-adopted-tentative-ruling-tro-osc-preliminary-injunction\" responsive=true text=false]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Merced County judge is ordering Foster Farms to follow local, state and federal COVID-19 safety rules, finding Wednesday that Livingston plant workers and their union are likely to succeed on claims that the company engaged in unlawful business practices by failing to consistently comply with a county health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Livingston plant recently saw its second COVID-19 outbreak, with at least 48 employees testing positive as of early December. The plant was previously shut down for six days in September after 392 workers tested positive and nine died.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11851959/lawsuit-foster-farms-plant-operating-in-naked-disregard-of-covid-19-safety-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argued in a Dec. 17\u003c/a> request for an emergency restraining order that Foster Farms has been operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines” on COVID-19 safety by requiring people to work within 6 feet of each other, failing to supply masks and keeping workers in the dark about positive cases at the plant, safety rules and sick pay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti said the plaintiffs “have set forth sufficient evidence for the court to be concerned that perhaps Foster Farms is not complying, or is unable to comply, or unwilling to comply or turning a blind eye.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti ruled against the union and workers’ allegation that Foster Farms created a public nuisance by increasing the coronavirus spread in the broader community — acknowledging the company’s argument that the prevalence of COVID-19 at the Livingston plant is lower than that of Merced County’s general population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the judge ruled against Foster Farms on another claim, finding that the company may have engaged in unfair business practices by failing to comply with an Aug. 28 health order issued by the Merced County Department of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436841-united-farm-workers-of-america-et-al-vs-foster-poultry-farms-201223-adopted-tentative-ruling-tro-osc-preliminary-injunction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The ruling\u003c/a> lists 20 requirements the poultry company must comply with at its Livingston plant, including: providing face masks, staggering employee meal and start times, investigating close contacts of workers who test positive, ensuring infected employees do not come to work and informing all employees of testing requirements and any outbreaks that occur, and safety training in English, Spanish and Punjabi, among other requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order goes into effect in five days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plaintiff's attorneys said the ruling is likely the first court injunction in the U.S. against a meat processing plant over coronavirus safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court recognized that being an essential worker does not mean that your employer may put your life and health at unnecessary risk,\" attorney Monique Alonso said in a written statement. The plaintiffs plan to argue for mandatory 6-feet distancing between workers on production lines, which is not required under the court's Wednesday order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proietti said that while he believed the last thing Foster Farms wants is for the company’s employees to get sick, he was concerned for the health and safety of workers at the plant.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the court’s ruling is “not imposing upon Foster Farms anything in addition to what it’s already agreed to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The judge referenced direction on COVID-19 safety in meat and poultry plants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms’ attorney argued the Merced County Department of Public Health and state and federal agencies are the primary authority on workplace safety issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is, your honor, they’re asking you to kind of insert yourself into this process,” said Christian Rowley, Foster Farms’ attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is going to open a huge can of worms for the court in terms of determining what is going to happen with regard to operation of the plant. Is there a violation? Is there not a violation? But you can see where the lack of technical expertise in this area with respect to the court is becoming even more problematic,” Rowley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Proietti wrote in his ruling that guidance from regulatory agencies does not preclude a court from enforcing those rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the hearing, Proietti said Foster Farms would have to actively monitor employees and supervisors to ensure they are following the guidelines in the court’s order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That means you have to resupply the masks, that means you have to discipline workers who refuse to follow the guidelines,” the judge said. “That’s something the employer has to take into consideration to make sure that their environment remains safe for the workplace and the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Foster Farms said the company “does not comment on active litigation in detail but believes that further adjudication will demonstrate that the company is already in compliance with required protective measures for its workforce and that the United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement also said Foster Farms is working with state and county health authorities to ensure that its workforce receives priority for the COVID-19 vaccine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Lawsuit: Foster Farms Plant Operating in 'Naked Disregard' of COVID-19 Safety Rules",
"title": "Lawsuit: Foster Farms Plant Operating in 'Naked Disregard' of COVID-19 Safety Rules",
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"content": "\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees of a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in the Central Valley have filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking an emergency court order to force Foster Farms to improve safety protocols at its Livingston complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a complaint filed in Merced County Superior Court Thursday, attorneys for the union and Livingston plant employees argue Foster Farms puts workers at the plant at an increased risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19, accusing the company of operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Foster Farms requires employees to work substantially less than six feet apart from each other for prolonged periods of time with no plastic divider or similar protection between them, fails to rigorously or effectively enforce social distancing or even to supply masks, and fails to keep its workforce adequately informed of safety and sick leave protocol, including access to COVID leave pay,” the complaint says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asks the court to immediately force Foster Farms to operate its Livingston complex in accordance with a Merced County health order issued in August and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848307/california-approves-new-emergency-covid-19-workplace-protections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency rules\u003c/a> recently enacted by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Plaintiffs Attorney Monique Alonso\"]'Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does not ask that the plant be closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit also argues that Foster Farms’ operation of the Livingston facility constitutes an “unfair and unlawful business practice that gives it a competitive edge at the expense of its employees’ safety,” and a public nuisance that impacts the greater community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms “continues to ignore baseline workplace safety protocols, inexorably leading to further spread and infection in the Plant and community at large,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti declined to make an emergency ruling on Friday, instead opting to schedule a second hearing for Dec. 23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are very significant issues that the court needs to look at before I make any type of emergency rulings,” Proietti said, “in light of what are federal emergency orders, statewide emergency orders, and with regard to a private commercial business operation, which is under operation as an essential industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms responded in court filings Friday that the lawsuit offers “allegations based primarily on anecdotal declarations and news articles that grossly misrepresent the substantial safety measures that Foster Poultry has implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company also argues that regulatory agencies, including Cal/OSHA and the county health department, have primary responsibility to oversee operations at its plants, and the court shouldn’t intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Foster Farms does not comment on active litigation in detail,\" the company said in a written statement Friday. \"We believe the current United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit and have confidence that judicial review will find accordingly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said it screens employees for symptoms, and follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, including mandatory mask wearing and workstation partitions. The plant is continuously cleaned, according to the company, and employee breaks are staggered. It is also installing portable air filters. Employees are also tested for COVID-19 continuously, according to Foster Farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, the company’s vice president of communications, said the positivity rates at the Livingston plant and two other facilities in Fresno have dropped in recent weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to test all workers twice weekly at the Livingston plant and the positivity continues to be less than 1%,” Brill said Thursday through a public relations representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case, said Foster Farms has not complied with the Aug. 28 Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this,” Alonso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alonso’s co-counsel, UFW General Counsel Mario Martinez, called the lawsuit “a last resort and about protecting workers’ lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Livingston Plant Facing New Outbreak\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>By early December, Merced County health officials added the Livingston facility to its list of outbreaks in the county for a second time. The plant was shut down for six days in September after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an outbreak\u003c/a> resulted in at least 392 workers testing positive for the coronavirus. Nine people infected in that first major outbreak died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Dec. 10, at least 48 workers had tested positive in connection to the more recent outbreak, according to a Foster Farms email obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since reopening the plant in September, attorneys write in the lawsuit, Foster Farms has not fully complied with the Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the company made certain alterations following the September shutdown, its compliance has been irregular, ineffective, inconsistent or nonexistent — all emblematic of a basic disregard of worker health and safety,” attorneys wrote in the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit also includes eight declarations from plant employees, who describe working within 2 or 3 feet of one another, sometimes separated by plastic dividers or curtains, other times not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee said in a declaration that she went to work during the temporary shutdown, despite the health order requiring her area of the plant to be closed. [aside postID=\"news_11850332,news_11835677,news_11833224\" label=\"Outbreaks at Foster Farms\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees also say they have often been responsible for supplying their own masks, although some say they were provided face shields. Cal/OSHA \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/documents/COVID-19-Prevention-Emergency-apprvdtxt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency regulations\u003c/a> that went into effect Nov. 30 require employers to provide employees with face coverings and ensure they are worn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before the Company gave the workers the plastic shields, I recall my foreperson handing out a flyer to us workers that had instructions about how to make our own masks with a piece of cloth or bandana to bring to work,” employee Maria Trinidad Madrigal said in a declaration. “Shortly after this, I recall that some workers received yellow face bandanas, but I did not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee described feeling ill and discovering she was COVID-19-positive at the same time as her brother and another co-worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After two months in the hospital with COVID, my brother Arnulfo passed away,” Maria Delgado, a 17-year employee of the plant, said in a declaration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People come and go in the hallway while people are punching in and out. There are a lot of people in a small area and there is no social distancing or being 6 feet apart,” Delgado said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delgado and other workers claim they have never received training about what to do if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, and that a lack of information has created fear among employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been no information-spreading, meetings, or training from supervision with regards to COVID, either before or after the shutdown,” Delgado said. “The workers just talk amongst themselves about people getting sick. I have read information in a flyer and have seen paperwork on bulletin boards in the hallway at the company that says the number of people that have tested positive but do not know how often it is updated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Outbreaks Span Multiple Central Valley Facilities\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other active outbreaks\u003c/a> at Foster Farms facilities in the Central Valley in addition to the one in Merced County. Three employees at the company’s plants in Fresno have died from complications related to COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 193 workers had tested positive at the company’s Cherry facility as of Dec. 8, according to Fresno County health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11851990 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms' S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An unknown number of workers have tested positive at the Belgravia plant, although Fresno County's director of public health, Dave Pomaville, said the number was substantially lower at that facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA spokesman Frank Polizzi confirmed the agency has been notified of two workers who have died in connection to the company’s Cherry plant. Polizzi said Cal/OSHA was notified of one death on Sept. 20 and another on Nov. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has five open inspections at the Livingston plant, and four at the plants in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms spokesman Brill confirmed on Dec. 11 that a worker at the company’s Belgravia plant had died since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths at the company’s facilities in Fresno to three. But neither Foster Farms nor county health officials have confirmed the date of that death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms and Fresno County health officials have reported that fewer workers have tested positive at the company’s plants in Fresno in recent days. [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 15, Fresno County Interim Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra said in an email the positivity rate among asymptomatic individuals tested at the Cherry plant had dropped from 22% to 6% from Dec. 1 to Dec. 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“COVID-19 represents an unprecedented challenge to all who live and work in California,” the company said in a statement. “Foster Farms is committed to this task and to the ongoing protection of its workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit that works within the Sikh Punjabi community and advocates for Foster Farms employees, said the lawsuit’s allegations are not surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After reading the lawsuit, we’re disappointed but not surprised that continuous complaints from workers and community organizations at the Livingston plant and other Foster Farms plants have not been resolved despite months of bringing attention to these safety matters, and months of Mr. Brill’s denials, sidesteps, pussyfooting and evasions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Foster Farms argues the suit is without merit and that it has taken major steps to stop the spread of the coronavirus. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>United Farm Workers of America and two employees of a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in the Central Valley have filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking an emergency court order to force Foster Farms to improve safety protocols at its Livingston complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a complaint filed in Merced County Superior Court Thursday, attorneys for the union and Livingston plant employees argue Foster Farms puts workers at the plant at an increased risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19, accusing the company of operating in “naked disregard of both national and local guidelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Foster Farms requires employees to work substantially less than six feet apart from each other for prolonged periods of time with no plastic divider or similar protection between them, fails to rigorously or effectively enforce social distancing or even to supply masks, and fails to keep its workforce adequately informed of safety and sick leave protocol, including access to COVID leave pay,” the complaint says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit asks the court to immediately force Foster Farms to operate its Livingston complex in accordance with a Merced County health order issued in August and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848307/california-approves-new-emergency-covid-19-workplace-protections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency rules\u003c/a> recently enacted by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA). \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does not ask that the plant be closed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suit also argues that Foster Farms’ operation of the Livingston facility constitutes an “unfair and unlawful business practice that gives it a competitive edge at the expense of its employees’ safety,” and a public nuisance that impacts the greater community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms “continues to ignore baseline workplace safety protocols, inexorably leading to further spread and infection in the Plant and community at large,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County Superior Court Judge Donald Proietti declined to make an emergency ruling on Friday, instead opting to schedule a second hearing for Dec. 23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are very significant issues that the court needs to look at before I make any type of emergency rulings,” Proietti said, “in light of what are federal emergency orders, statewide emergency orders, and with regard to a private commercial business operation, which is under operation as an essential industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms responded in court filings Friday that the lawsuit offers “allegations based primarily on anecdotal declarations and news articles that grossly misrepresent the substantial safety measures that Foster Poultry has implemented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company also argues that regulatory agencies, including Cal/OSHA and the county health department, have primary responsibility to oversee operations at its plants, and the court shouldn’t intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Foster Farms does not comment on active litigation in detail,\" the company said in a written statement Friday. \"We believe the current United Farm Workers lawsuit is without merit and have confidence that judicial review will find accordingly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said it screens employees for symptoms, and follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, including mandatory mask wearing and workstation partitions. The plant is continuously cleaned, according to the company, and employee breaks are staggered. It is also installing portable air filters. Employees are also tested for COVID-19 continuously, according to Foster Farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, the company’s vice president of communications, said the positivity rates at the Livingston plant and two other facilities in Fresno have dropped in recent weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to test all workers twice weekly at the Livingston plant and the positivity continues to be less than 1%,” Brill said Thursday through a public relations representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monique Alonso, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case, said Foster Farms has not complied with the Aug. 28 Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their compliance has been incomplete, it’s been inconsistent, and they obviously need something a little stronger than the county of Merced saying you need to do this,” Alonso said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alonso’s co-counsel, UFW General Counsel Mario Martinez, called the lawsuit “a last resort and about protecting workers’ lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Livingston Plant Facing New Outbreak\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>By early December, Merced County health officials added the Livingston facility to its list of outbreaks in the county for a second time. The plant was shut down for six days in September after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an outbreak\u003c/a> resulted in at least 392 workers testing positive for the coronavirus. Nine people infected in that first major outbreak died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Dec. 10, at least 48 workers had tested positive in connection to the more recent outbreak, according to a Foster Farms email obtained by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since reopening the plant in September, attorneys write in the lawsuit, Foster Farms has not fully complied with the Merced County health order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While the company made certain alterations following the September shutdown, its compliance has been irregular, ineffective, inconsistent or nonexistent — all emblematic of a basic disregard of worker health and safety,” attorneys wrote in the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit also includes eight declarations from plant employees, who describe working within 2 or 3 feet of one another, sometimes separated by plastic dividers or curtains, other times not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee said in a declaration that she went to work during the temporary shutdown, despite the health order requiring her area of the plant to be closed. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Employees also say they have often been responsible for supplying their own masks, although some say they were provided face shields. Cal/OSHA \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/oshsb/documents/COVID-19-Prevention-Emergency-apprvdtxt.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">emergency regulations\u003c/a> that went into effect Nov. 30 require employers to provide employees with face coverings and ensure they are worn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before the Company gave the workers the plastic shields, I recall my foreperson handing out a flyer to us workers that had instructions about how to make our own masks with a piece of cloth or bandana to bring to work,” employee Maria Trinidad Madrigal said in a declaration. “Shortly after this, I recall that some workers received yellow face bandanas, but I did not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee described feeling ill and discovering she was COVID-19-positive at the same time as her brother and another co-worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After two months in the hospital with COVID, my brother Arnulfo passed away,” Maria Delgado, a 17-year employee of the plant, said in a declaration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People come and go in the hallway while people are punching in and out. There are a lot of people in a small area and there is no social distancing or being 6 feet apart,” Delgado said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delgado and other workers claim they have never received training about what to do if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, and that a lack of information has created fear among employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There has been no information-spreading, meetings, or training from supervision with regards to COVID, either before or after the shutdown,” Delgado said. “The workers just talk amongst themselves about people getting sick. I have read information in a flyer and have seen paperwork on bulletin boards in the hallway at the company that says the number of people that have tested positive but do not know how often it is updated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Outbreaks Span Multiple Central Valley Facilities\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There are two \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11850332/covid-19-again-sweeps-through-foster-farms-plants-in-central-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other active outbreaks\u003c/a> at Foster Farms facilities in the Central Valley in addition to the one in Merced County. Three employees at the company’s plants in Fresno have died from complications related to COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least 193 workers had tested positive at the company’s Cherry facility as of Dec. 8, according to Fresno County health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851990\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11851990 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/IMG_7323-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A truck rolls into Foster Farms' S. Cherry Avenue facility in Fresno on Dec. 9. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An unknown number of workers have tested positive at the Belgravia plant, although Fresno County's director of public health, Dave Pomaville, said the number was substantially lower at that facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA spokesman Frank Polizzi confirmed the agency has been notified of two workers who have died in connection to the company’s Cherry plant. Polizzi said Cal/OSHA was notified of one death on Sept. 20 and another on Nov. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA has five open inspections at the Livingston plant, and four at the plants in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms spokesman Brill confirmed on Dec. 11 that a worker at the company’s Belgravia plant had died since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths at the company’s facilities in Fresno to three. But neither Foster Farms nor county health officials have confirmed the date of that death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms and Fresno County health officials have reported that fewer workers have tested positive at the company’s plants in Fresno in recent days. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Dec. 15, Fresno County Interim Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra said in an email the positivity rate among asymptomatic individuals tested at the Cherry plant had dropped from 22% to 6% from Dec. 1 to Dec. 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“COVID-19 represents an unprecedented challenge to all who live and work in California,” the company said in a statement. “Foster Farms is committed to this task and to the ongoing protection of its workforce.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a nonprofit that works within the Sikh Punjabi community and advocates for Foster Farms employees, said the lawsuit’s allegations are not surprising.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After reading the lawsuit, we’re disappointed but not surprised that continuous complaints from workers and community organizations at the Livingston plant and other Foster Farms plants have not been resolved despite months of bringing attention to these safety matters, and months of Mr. Brill’s denials, sidesteps, pussyfooting and evasions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Merced County health authorities have ordered a Foster Farms poultry processing plant to shut down in an attempt to halt \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a COVID-19 outbreak\u003c/a> that has claimed the lives of eight workers so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county’s Department of Public Health issued the order Wednesday and announced it publicly in \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7047268/MCDPH-Foster-Farms-Statement-8-27-20.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a statement\u003c/a> Thursday, saying the outbreak at the plant in the town of Livingston is “the most severe and long-lasting” in hard-hit Merced County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said enforcement of the order would be stayed for 48 hours “to help facilitate logistics” associated with the closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The health department said the facility, which normally employs about 3,500 people, should remain closed until the company undertakes steps to ensure it can reopen safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county says 358 workers at the plant have tested positive for the coronavirus to date, though it added that number is based on employees who have chosen to get tested and voluntarily reported results to the company. “The true spread of COVID-19 in the Foster Farms Livingston facility remains unknown,” the county’s statement said. [aside tag=\"foster-farms\" label=\"more coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The closure of this plant is the only way to get the outbreak at Foster Farms swiftly under control,” Dr. Salvador Sandoval, the county’s public health officer, said in the statement. “Our hearts are with the eight families who have lost a loved one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said its health officials, along with representatives from the California Department of Public Health and the office of state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, “worked with Foster Farms to limit the impact of the closure and could not reach agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county’s announcement included a statement from Becerra and a separate letter from California’s acting health officer urging compliance with the county order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra said the Livingston plant “has experienced an alarming spread of COVID-19 among its workers. Nobody can ignore the facts: It’s time to hit the reset button” at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms’ communication chief, Ira Brill, said the company would issue a statement on the shutdown order on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a message sent by text message and in robocalls to Livingston plant workers Thursday evening, the company directed employees to “report to work for their next scheduled shift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sites are safely operating,” the message said. “Please wear face covering and follow other safe practices.” [ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement from Merced County health officials said the shutdown order came only after what they described as Foster Farms’ repeated failure to heed advice on testing and other measures needed to contain the outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said Foster Farms’ slow response to health officials’ recommendations for widespread testing at the plant led to directives on Aug. 5 and Aug. 11 requiring “immediate COVID-19 testing of all permanent, volunteer and temporary employees who share air within a facility that has an outbreak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But county health officials say it’s not clear whether Foster Farms complied with that order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since the August 5th directive was issued, the spread of COVID-19 within the facility has not been contained and active outbreaks continue to exist, posing a significant threat to Foster Farms employees and the surrounding community,” the county statement said. “Furthermore, testing as required by the Health Directive had not been completed and it is unclear whether the temporary workers were included in testing, as recommended” by the health department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Merced County Public Health Officer Dr. Salvador Sandoval']‘The closure of this plant is the only way to get the outbreak at Foster Farms swiftly under control.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7047267/Signed-Letter-From-Dr-Pan-to-Foster-Farms-Merced.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a letter to the company\u003c/a> dated Thursday, Dr. Erica Pan, the state’s acting health officer, said Foster Farms’ failure to comply with the county directives “is not only jeopardizing the health of permanent, temporary, and volunteer workers and their families but also increasing the risk of community transmission in Merced County and surrounding counties, which are already experiencing very high levels of transmission.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator, opened an investigation into conditions at the plant in July. That probe is ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County has seen one of California’s biggest spikes in COVID-19, with the viral disease spreading rapidly through San Joaquin Valley communities heavily dependent on agricultural and food-processing jobs where people typically work in close quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county has reported a total of 7,814 coronavirus cases and 114 deaths. Livingston, home to the Foster Farms plant now facing closure, has recorded 821 infections to date. That gives it a rate of one in 17 residents positive for the virus, among the highest per capita rates in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Merced County health authorities have ordered a Foster Farms poultry processing plant to shut down in an attempt to halt \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833224/3-deaths-more-than-200-infections-in-coronavirus-outbreak-at-foster-farms-plant-livingston\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a COVID-19 outbreak\u003c/a> that has claimed the lives of eight workers so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county’s Department of Public Health issued the order Wednesday and announced it publicly in \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7047268/MCDPH-Foster-Farms-Statement-8-27-20.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a statement\u003c/a> Thursday, saying the outbreak at the plant in the town of Livingston is “the most severe and long-lasting” in hard-hit Merced County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said enforcement of the order would be stayed for 48 hours “to help facilitate logistics” associated with the closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The health department said the facility, which normally employs about 3,500 people, should remain closed until the company undertakes steps to ensure it can reopen safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county says 358 workers at the plant have tested positive for the coronavirus to date, though it added that number is based on employees who have chosen to get tested and voluntarily reported results to the company. “The true spread of COVID-19 in the Foster Farms Livingston facility remains unknown,” the county’s statement said. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The closure of this plant is the only way to get the outbreak at Foster Farms swiftly under control,” Dr. Salvador Sandoval, the county’s public health officer, said in the statement. “Our hearts are with the eight families who have lost a loved one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said its health officials, along with representatives from the California Department of Public Health and the office of state Attorney General Xavier Becerra, “worked with Foster Farms to limit the impact of the closure and could not reach agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county’s announcement included a statement from Becerra and a separate letter from California’s acting health officer urging compliance with the county order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra said the Livingston plant “has experienced an alarming spread of COVID-19 among its workers. Nobody can ignore the facts: It’s time to hit the reset button” at the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms’ communication chief, Ira Brill, said the company would issue a statement on the shutdown order on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in a message sent by text message and in robocalls to Livingston plant workers Thursday evening, the company directed employees to “report to work for their next scheduled shift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sites are safely operating,” the message said. “Please wear face covering and follow other safe practices.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statement from Merced County health officials said the shutdown order came only after what they described as Foster Farms’ repeated failure to heed advice on testing and other measures needed to contain the outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county said Foster Farms’ slow response to health officials’ recommendations for widespread testing at the plant led to directives on Aug. 5 and Aug. 11 requiring “immediate COVID-19 testing of all permanent, volunteer and temporary employees who share air within a facility that has an outbreak.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But county health officials say it’s not clear whether Foster Farms complied with that order.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since the August 5th directive was issued, the spread of COVID-19 within the facility has not been contained and active outbreaks continue to exist, posing a significant threat to Foster Farms employees and the surrounding community,” the county statement said. “Furthermore, testing as required by the Health Directive had not been completed and it is unclear whether the temporary workers were included in testing, as recommended” by the health department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7047267/Signed-Letter-From-Dr-Pan-to-Foster-Farms-Merced.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a letter to the company\u003c/a> dated Thursday, Dr. Erica Pan, the state’s acting health officer, said Foster Farms’ failure to comply with the county directives “is not only jeopardizing the health of permanent, temporary, and volunteer workers and their families but also increasing the risk of community transmission in Merced County and surrounding counties, which are already experiencing very high levels of transmission.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety regulator, opened an investigation into conditions at the plant in July. That probe is ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merced County has seen one of California’s biggest spikes in COVID-19, with the viral disease spreading rapidly through San Joaquin Valley communities heavily dependent on agricultural and food-processing jobs where people typically work in close quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The county has reported a total of 7,814 coronavirus cases and 114 deaths. Livingston, home to the Foster Farms plant now facing closure, has recorded 821 infections to date. That gives it a rate of one in 17 residents positive for the virus, among the highest per capita rates in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>State workplace safety officials are investigating conditions at a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in Merced County where 217 workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, with at least two dying of complications of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Gurpal Samra of Livingston, a town of 15,000 that’s home to the Foster Farms facility, said Thursday that county health officials have informed him that 217 plant workers have tested positive for the virus. That’s nearly triple the number reported July 31.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor said that at least two workers have died during the outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the situation at the plant, which has prompted an investigation by Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health would not confirm the number of cases at the plant, citing federal health privacy laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Merced County Department of Public Health continues to work with Foster Farms and several other businesses to help slow the spread of COVID-19,\" a county public information officer wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Industrial Relations spokesman Frank Polizzi said Cal/OSHA opened a probe into the plant late last month after receiving notice that a worker had died from complications related to COVID-19. The agency is required to look into death or serious injury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polizzi said both Cal/OSHA and officials with the county health department visited Foster Farms last week, and that the investigation will include “a detailed review of the employer’s safety policies to identify and correct violations, including a review of their COVID-19 infection prevention procedures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors have up to six months to issue citations and are likely to return to Foster Farms, Polizzi said. When the inspection is complete, it may result in citations with monetary penalties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outbreak at the plant is part of a spike in COVID-19 cases throughout Merced County and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley. Livingston had recorded \u003ca href=\"https://mercedcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f005de09bbbe4171a8bba19d74b2347b\">700 positive cases\u003c/a> through Thursday. With the equivalent of about one in 20 residents testing positive, the town has one of the highest per capita infection rates in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health lists a total of 25 outbreaks countywide, including episodes at two other food facilities — a cheese plant and an almond processor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Samra said the county health agency has issued a series of directives to Foster Farms and that county officials are expected to visit the plant Monday to ensure the company is complying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='coronavirus']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"One of the main items in the directive is if, because they have multiple buildings, anybody tests positive in any building, they need to test all employees in that building,\" Samra said. He added that \"any new employees must have tested negative within 24 to 48 hours.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plant workers have reported reduced operations at the plant due to a lack of workers. Others say they have been kept in the dark about the outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One employee, who asked not to be named for fear she could lose her job, said workers “are all afraid of getting infected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some stop going to work because they’re afraid, or because they don’t feel well,” she said. “That’s what we don’t really know — how many people are infected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samra said he has received many phone calls and emails from plant employees about the outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They say they should just shut it down, deep clean, sanitize it all, test everybody, then bring everybody back. That's what they want,\" Samra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium,\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Foster Farms employee\"]’Some stop going to work because they’re afraid, or because they don’t feel well. That’s what we don’t really know — how many people are infected.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Grossman, a spokesman for the United Farm Workers, which represents about 2,000 workers at the plant, said some employees are staying away from the plant out of fear of COVID-19 and that the shortage of workers has impacted operations at the plant. But he said no area of the plant has been unable to operate because of absent workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grossman said the union knows of two workers who had died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The UFW has urged the county health department to have Foster Farms provide free testing to all plant workers every two weeks, Grossman said. Testing of 600 workers in the chicken packaging area of the plant began Wednesday, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Foster Farms has not responded to questions about the situation at the plant, it has posted a summary of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fosterfarms.com/our-story/safety-and-sustainability/\">steps it's taking\u003c/a> to safeguard worker health. The company says those measures include increasing daily sanitation and personal hygiene checks throughout the company's facilities, installing partitions in work spaces and break rooms and monitoring employees for fever and other symptoms of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think that they’re trying,\" Grossman said. \"It’s a big challenge. It’s a huge burden when the community in which you’re located is experiencing such pervasive spread, community-wide spread, of the disease. It’s inevitable that when the community is seeing such widespread contagion, that a company this large where people are working indoors in close quarters that people are going to get sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation at the plant has led to discussion among local officials about whether the plant could be shut down if the outbreak there worsens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have the authority in Livingston to just walk into Foster Farms. We don’t have that. Only Cal/OSHA and the county does. We do not,” Mayor Samra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samra said officials with the county health department are writing new procedures for how to handle the outbreak as they go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There are no guidelines, no books, no manuals, on how to deal with this anywhere at the state level. Even the federal government is in disarray. So Merced County Health, who’s never had to deal with this either, is trying to find the best way to work with it and they’re literally writing checks and procedures that the state’s also looking at because the state doesn’t have anything,\" Samra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium,\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gurpal Samra, mayor of Livingston\"]’There are no guidelines, no books, no manuals, on how to deal with this anywhere at the state level. Even the federal government is in disarray. So Merced County Health, who’s never had to deal with this either, is trying to find the best way to work with it and they’re literally writing checks and procedures that the state’s also looking at because the state doesn’t have anything.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They’re literally writing the book as they go along. They said, I know it looks all over the place, but no one has any procedures,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local health officials said they first became aware of the outbreak at Foster Farms in mid-June. In a phone interview with KQED in July, Merced County Health Officer Dr. Salvador Sandoval said he discussed with a Foster Farms official various options should the outbreak at the plant get “out of hand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval said the official pointed to President Trump’s April \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-delegating-authority-dpa-respect-food-supply-chain-resources-national-emergency-caused-outbreak-covid-19/\">executive order\u003c/a> under the Defense Production Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines have been that, if people are positive, or have been exposed to someone that's positive on the line at a certain point, because of the Defense Production Act, that they might continue to work and not be quarantined, because of ... to maintain production,” Sandoval said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, Foster Farms' communications chief, disputed Sandoval's characterization through a company PR representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brill \"wanted to inform you that the information as described ... is not accurate and is taken out of context. The company will not participate further,\" Lorna Bush of San Francisco's Fineman PR said in a July 21 email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 29, a team from the Merced County Department of Public Health did a walkthrough of the plant, Sandoval said. During the site visit, he said, county officials noticed several \"problem areas.\" One was the length of plexiglass in the break rooms, which county officials did not consider to be extensive enough, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials recommended that all line workers at the plant be tested for coronavirus, Sandoval said. But plant officials said blanket testing could be difficult because some workers are temporary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That has to be taken into account — how that's going to be managed,\" Sandoval said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The health officer said he was told that if the Livingston plant closed, Foster Farms would have to consider slaughtering 2 million chickens per week. Sandoval said he suggested freezing the chickens, but was told that the plant prides itself on having fresh chicken and that that is an important part of the company’s ability to compete with companies in other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're not surprised at the large numbers of cases we're hearing,\" said Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a Sikh community organizing group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Of course we're still alarmed, we're in shock, about the toll that takes on communities, on families and of course on individuals. We've been trying to have this conversation with Foster Farms since March. We really need an all hands-on approach to find a solution together, because otherwise this problem is just going to continue getting larger and affect more and more families in the area.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State workplace safety officials are investigating conditions at a Foster Farms poultry processing plant in Merced County where 217 workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, with at least two dying of complications of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Gurpal Samra of Livingston, a town of 15,000 that’s home to the Foster Farms facility, said Thursday that county health officials have informed him that 217 plant workers have tested positive for the virus. That’s nearly triple the number reported July 31.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor said that at least two workers have died during the outbreak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster Farms did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the situation at the plant, which has prompted an investigation by Cal/OSHA, the state’s workplace safety agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health would not confirm the number of cases at the plant, citing federal health privacy laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Merced County Department of Public Health continues to work with Foster Farms and several other businesses to help slow the spread of COVID-19,\" a county public information officer wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Industrial Relations spokesman Frank Polizzi said Cal/OSHA opened a probe into the plant late last month after receiving notice that a worker had died from complications related to COVID-19. The agency is required to look into death or serious injury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polizzi said both Cal/OSHA and officials with the county health department visited Foster Farms last week, and that the investigation will include “a detailed review of the employer’s safety policies to identify and correct violations, including a review of their COVID-19 infection prevention procedures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors have up to six months to issue citations and are likely to return to Foster Farms, Polizzi said. When the inspection is complete, it may result in citations with monetary penalties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outbreak at the plant is part of a spike in COVID-19 cases throughout Merced County and the rest of the San Joaquin Valley. Livingston had recorded \u003ca href=\"https://mercedcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f005de09bbbe4171a8bba19d74b2347b\">700 positive cases\u003c/a> through Thursday. With the equivalent of about one in 20 residents testing positive, the town has one of the highest per capita infection rates in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Merced County Department of Public Health lists a total of 25 outbreaks countywide, including episodes at two other food facilities — a cheese plant and an almond processor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Samra said the county health agency has issued a series of directives to Foster Farms and that county officials are expected to visit the plant Monday to ensure the company is complying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marc Grossman, a spokesman for the United Farm Workers, which represents about 2,000 workers at the plant, said some employees are staying away from the plant out of fear of COVID-19 and that the shortage of workers has impacted operations at the plant. But he said no area of the plant has been unable to operate because of absent workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grossman said the union knows of two workers who had died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The UFW has urged the county health department to have Foster Farms provide free testing to all plant workers every two weeks, Grossman said. Testing of 600 workers in the chicken packaging area of the plant began Wednesday, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Foster Farms has not responded to questions about the situation at the plant, it has posted a summary of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fosterfarms.com/our-story/safety-and-sustainability/\">steps it's taking\u003c/a> to safeguard worker health. The company says those measures include increasing daily sanitation and personal hygiene checks throughout the company's facilities, installing partitions in work spaces and break rooms and monitoring employees for fever and other symptoms of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think that they’re trying,\" Grossman said. \"It’s a big challenge. It’s a huge burden when the community in which you’re located is experiencing such pervasive spread, community-wide spread, of the disease. It’s inevitable that when the community is seeing such widespread contagion, that a company this large where people are working indoors in close quarters that people are going to get sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The situation at the plant has led to discussion among local officials about whether the plant could be shut down if the outbreak there worsens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have the authority in Livingston to just walk into Foster Farms. We don’t have that. Only Cal/OSHA and the county does. We do not,” Mayor Samra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samra said officials with the county health department are writing new procedures for how to handle the outbreak as they go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There are no guidelines, no books, no manuals, on how to deal with this anywhere at the state level. Even the federal government is in disarray. So Merced County Health, who’s never had to deal with this either, is trying to find the best way to work with it and they’re literally writing checks and procedures that the state’s also looking at because the state doesn’t have anything,\" Samra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "’There are no guidelines, no books, no manuals, on how to deal with this anywhere at the state level. Even the federal government is in disarray. So Merced County Health, who’s never had to deal with this either, is trying to find the best way to work with it and they’re literally writing checks and procedures that the state’s also looking at because the state doesn’t have anything.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They’re literally writing the book as they go along. They said, I know it looks all over the place, but no one has any procedures,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local health officials said they first became aware of the outbreak at Foster Farms in mid-June. In a phone interview with KQED in July, Merced County Health Officer Dr. Salvador Sandoval said he discussed with a Foster Farms official various options should the outbreak at the plant get “out of hand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval said the official pointed to President Trump’s April \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-delegating-authority-dpa-respect-food-supply-chain-resources-national-emergency-caused-outbreak-covid-19/\">executive order\u003c/a> under the Defense Production Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines have been that, if people are positive, or have been exposed to someone that's positive on the line at a certain point, because of the Defense Production Act, that they might continue to work and not be quarantined, because of ... to maintain production,” Sandoval said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ira Brill, Foster Farms' communications chief, disputed Sandoval's characterization through a company PR representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brill \"wanted to inform you that the information as described ... is not accurate and is taken out of context. The company will not participate further,\" Lorna Bush of San Francisco's Fineman PR said in a July 21 email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 29, a team from the Merced County Department of Public Health did a walkthrough of the plant, Sandoval said. During the site visit, he said, county officials noticed several \"problem areas.\" One was the length of plexiglass in the break rooms, which county officials did not consider to be extensive enough, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials recommended that all line workers at the plant be tested for coronavirus, Sandoval said. But plant officials said blanket testing could be difficult because some workers are temporary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That has to be taken into account — how that's going to be managed,\" Sandoval said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The health officer said he was told that if the Livingston plant closed, Foster Farms would have to consider slaughtering 2 million chickens per week. Sandoval said he suggested freezing the chickens, but was told that the plant prides itself on having fresh chicken and that that is an important part of the company’s ability to compete with companies in other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're not surprised at the large numbers of cases we're hearing,\" said Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, a Sikh community organizing group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Of course we're still alarmed, we're in shock, about the toll that takes on communities, on families and of course on individuals. We've been trying to have this conversation with Foster Farms since March. We really need an all hands-on approach to find a solution together, because otherwise this problem is just going to continue getting larger and affect more and more families in the area.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As Dr. Ibraheem Al Shareef examined the chubby legs of 4-month-old Lexie, he noted that one side of her body seemed abnormally large compared to the other. He whipped out a tape measure and decided to measure one leg to see. Sure enough, it was 2 centimeters wider than the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll need to do some testing,” he said to Dao Thao, Lexie’s mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag='starting-blocks' label='The Starting Blocks Series']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao looked worried. “I was thinking maybe everything is fine, [that] she was just born like this,” Thao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such developmental screenings in a child’s first year of life are important since they can pick up potentially serious problems early, said Dr. Al Shareef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao has been bringing Lexie to the clinic, the Golden Valley Health Centers in Merced, since she was born. Yet across Merced County, where 43 percent of all children under 3 live in impoverished families, according to Kidsdata, health professionals worry that pregnant women and small children are not accessing adequate health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a pregnant woman, prenatal care can improve the health of her fetus, and for children under 2, regular wellness checks and early vaccines are critical, said Al Shareef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But impoverished parents are juggling a lot: Finding \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11737207/without-affordable-child-care-escaping-poverty-is-tough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">child care\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11737431/with-a-new-uc-campus-and-more-jobs-merced-is-booming-but-that-growth-isnt-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">housing\u003c/a>, getting stable work, putting food on the table. Sometimes, going to the doctor for preventative care falls down the list of immediate priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Dao Thao, the news about Lexie’s growth is troublesome. Testing means having to go to a neighboring county where there is a hospital. She will need to find someone with a car to take her, her husband will have to get time off work, and she will have to find child care for her other four children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao is scared: “You don’t know when you go for ultrasound what they’re going to say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Central Valley city of Merced is a place where prosperity sits alongside entrenched poverty. Life for nearly half of the county’s littlest residents begins in a family that struggles to pay bills, often does not have stable housing, and might not be accessing critical prenatal or infant health care services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Early quality care is essential for the best start to life, and early environmental impacts can have lifelong effects,” said the 2016 Community Health Assessment published by the Merced County Department of Public Health. “This includes prenatal and birth outcomes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11738006\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11738006\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-632x474.jpg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Central Valley city of Merced is a place where prosperity sits alongside entrenched poverty. Merced has experienced the top personal income growth of any metro area in the country for the past five years, mostly fueled by an expanding UC campus. \u003ccite>(Matt Rogers for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But that health care often goes missing in the first three months of pregnancy, experts say. County officials also said nearly one-quarter of women living there in 2012 did not receive adequate prenatal care during their pregnancy, compared to 10 percent of women statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That worries Donna Chin, a supervising public health nurse at the Merced County public health department. She said that prenatal care can detect early problems with the fetus and help the mother make informed choices. Regular doctor visits while pregnant also emphasize the critical importance of taking vitamins and eating a healthy diet, something that may be difficult for low-income women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When these things don’t happen, sometimes the baby is affected, Chin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women that are below the poverty line [are] trying to just survive,” she said. “Food security, clothing, housing — it’s hard for them to think about getting good nutrition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]In Merced County, 43 percent of all children under 3 live in impoverished families[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin has seen too many cases where “mom didn’t get enough protein or good fats to help the [fetus] grow,” she said. Sometimes the babies are small for their gestational age, sometimes born pre-term. “Because the child did not get the good nutrition in utero sometimes we see a delay, we see a neurological delay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin’s team of home visiting nurses aims to help connect impoverished mothers and mothers-to-be with health services and education. They also go out and find mothers who may be off the grid, living in tents or in their cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have driven along canal banks and gotten food to mothers,” Chin said. “That’s what we do because they need it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another public health nurse in Merced County, Rebecca Melero, said she sees stable housing as a public health issue, especially for families who have children under the age of 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see a lot of co-housing with multiple family members in a very small space, or sometimes no space at all, so they’re in their vehicle,” Melero said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11739825\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11739825\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-800x547.jpg\" alt=\"Norma Sandoval with her infant son, Alex, at Yosemite High School's child development center in Merced on March 13, 2019.\" width=\"800\" height=\"547\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-1200x821.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norma Sandoval with her infant son, Alex, at Yosemite High School’s child development center in Merced on March 13, 2019. \u003ccite>(Matt Rogers/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dealing with housing is directly connected to healthy outcomes for children, Melero said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Co-housing is common amid rising housing costs and homelessness statewide, and it can be stressful for families with small children to live in someone else’s home, county officials say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norma Sandoval grew up in Merced and now lives with her 4-month-old, Alex, in the apartment of her boyfriend’s parents. It’s a small space, and a tense living arrangement for Sandoval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She generally holes up in a tiny room with Alex to avoid confrontations with the parents, but knows this can’t last long since her baby will soon need room to crawl and then walk. Sandoval is hoping to get a Section 8 housing voucher so they can move on. Getting the voucher, however, is one thing; finding a place in Merced will be the bigger challenge, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval also fits another profile that worries public health officials in Merced: At 17, she’s a teen mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of the births in Merced County are teen pregnancies,” according to the 2016 Community Health Assessment for Merced County. The county’s rate of teen pregnancies is significantly higher than those statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Donna Chin of the Merced County public health department']‘I have driven along canal banks and gotten food to mothers. That’s what we do because they need it.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval has many friends who are also young mothers. While she went regularly to see an OB/GYN during her pregnancy, she said none of her friends did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe because they didn’t have time,” she said. And this is one of the biggest challenges Chin’s public health team faces, emphasizing the importance of prenatal care when women are struggling to get by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a higher incidence for teen moms to have a pre-term birth,” Chin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reaching full gestational age is important, she said, because when babies are born premature, the baby doesn’t have the full time to form in utero and it also affects their respiratory status. A pre-term baby is at higher risk for complications early in life because “they have immature neuro systems,” Chin said. “Things are still forming, it’s very difficult for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chin’s team can’t get to every pregnant mom, which is one of the problems when the numbers of impoverished families is so high in one place. “We’re trying,” Chin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Al Shareef’s clinic, the Golden Valley Health Centers (GVHC), serves primarily impoverished families in Merced and the Central Valley. It has many small outposts and a sprawling, campuslike main facility in downtown Merced. It’s a one-stop shop where medical, dental and mental health care can be obtained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The centers’ patients largely have their medical insurance covered by the state, with some federal and county funds chipped in. Merced’s Health and Human services office counted a monthly average of about 130,000 children receiving Medi-Cal, the government provided health insurance, for 2017-2018 .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the Merced County public health department, GVHC has a program of community health workers who go into the community and help connect parents with pediatricians. They also go to high schools where teen moms are studying and lead workshops on parenting and managing stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Al Shareef said he will stay on top of things with Lexie and will make sure her parents have a ride to the hospital to get the tests done. Yet he can’t help with child care for her other four children while they go, nor lost wages for Lexie’s dad, who will have to miss work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely challenging,” he said, as he typed up the referral for Lexie’s ultrasound and other tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Deepa Fernandes is an Early Childhood reporting fellow at Pacific Oaks College, which is funded in part by First 5 LA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao looked worried. “I was thinking maybe everything is fine, [that] she was just born like this,” Thao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such developmental screenings in a child’s first year of life are important since they can pick up potentially serious problems early, said Dr. Al Shareef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao has been bringing Lexie to the clinic, the Golden Valley Health Centers in Merced, since she was born. Yet across Merced County, where 43 percent of all children under 3 live in impoverished families, according to Kidsdata, health professionals worry that pregnant women and small children are not accessing adequate health care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a pregnant woman, prenatal care can improve the health of her fetus, and for children under 2, regular wellness checks and early vaccines are critical, said Al Shareef.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But impoverished parents are juggling a lot: Finding \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11737207/without-affordable-child-care-escaping-poverty-is-tough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">child care\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11737431/with-a-new-uc-campus-and-more-jobs-merced-is-booming-but-that-growth-isnt-for-everyone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">housing\u003c/a>, getting stable work, putting food on the table. Sometimes, going to the doctor for preventative care falls down the list of immediate priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Dao Thao, the news about Lexie’s growth is troublesome. Testing means having to go to a neighboring county where there is a hospital. She will need to find someone with a car to take her, her husband will have to get time off work, and she will have to find child care for her other four children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thao is scared: “You don’t know when you go for ultrasound what they’re going to say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Central Valley city of Merced is a place where prosperity sits alongside entrenched poverty. Life for nearly half of the county’s littlest residents begins in a family that struggles to pay bills, often does not have stable housing, and might not be accessing critical prenatal or infant health care services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Early quality care is essential for the best start to life, and early environmental impacts can have lifelong effects,” said the 2016 Community Health Assessment published by the Merced County Department of Public Health. “This includes prenatal and birth outcomes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11738006\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11738006\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1832x1374.jpg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1376x1032.jpg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-1044x783.jpg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-632x474.jpg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36410_Starting-Blocks-2-qut-536x402.jpg 536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Central Valley city of Merced is a place where prosperity sits alongside entrenched poverty. Merced has experienced the top personal income growth of any metro area in the country for the past five years, mostly fueled by an expanding UC campus. \u003ccite>(Matt Rogers for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But that health care often goes missing in the first three months of pregnancy, experts say. County officials also said nearly one-quarter of women living there in 2012 did not receive adequate prenatal care during their pregnancy, compared to 10 percent of women statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That worries Donna Chin, a supervising public health nurse at the Merced County public health department. She said that prenatal care can detect early problems with the fetus and help the mother make informed choices. Regular doctor visits while pregnant also emphasize the critical importance of taking vitamins and eating a healthy diet, something that may be difficult for low-income women.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When these things don’t happen, sometimes the baby is affected, Chin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women that are below the poverty line [are] trying to just survive,” she said. “Food security, clothing, housing — it’s hard for them to think about getting good nutrition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "In Merced County, 43 percent of all children under 3 live in impoverished families",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin has seen too many cases where “mom didn’t get enough protein or good fats to help the [fetus] grow,” she said. Sometimes the babies are small for their gestational age, sometimes born pre-term. “Because the child did not get the good nutrition in utero sometimes we see a delay, we see a neurological delay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chin’s team of home visiting nurses aims to help connect impoverished mothers and mothers-to-be with health services and education. They also go out and find mothers who may be off the grid, living in tents or in their cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have driven along canal banks and gotten food to mothers,” Chin said. “That’s what we do because they need it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another public health nurse in Merced County, Rebecca Melero, said she sees stable housing as a public health issue, especially for families who have children under the age of 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I see a lot of co-housing with multiple family members in a very small space, or sometimes no space at all, so they’re in their vehicle,” Melero said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11739825\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11739825\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-800x547.jpg\" alt=\"Norma Sandoval with her infant son, Alex, at Yosemite High School's child development center in Merced on March 13, 2019.\" width=\"800\" height=\"547\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-800x547.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-1020x698.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut-1200x821.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/04122019_Merced-Early-Childhood-Prenatal-Health-Care-Pregnant-Women-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norma Sandoval with her infant son, Alex, at Yosemite High School’s child development center in Merced on March 13, 2019. \u003ccite>(Matt Rogers/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dealing with housing is directly connected to healthy outcomes for children, Melero said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Co-housing is common amid rising housing costs and homelessness statewide, and it can be stressful for families with small children to live in someone else’s home, county officials say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Norma Sandoval grew up in Merced and now lives with her 4-month-old, Alex, in the apartment of her boyfriend’s parents. It’s a small space, and a tense living arrangement for Sandoval.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She generally holes up in a tiny room with Alex to avoid confrontations with the parents, but knows this can’t last long since her baby will soon need room to crawl and then walk. Sandoval is hoping to get a Section 8 housing voucher so they can move on. Getting the voucher, however, is one thing; finding a place in Merced will be the bigger challenge, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval also fits another profile that worries public health officials in Merced: At 17, she’s a teen mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of the births in Merced County are teen pregnancies,” according to the 2016 Community Health Assessment for Merced County. The county’s rate of teen pregnancies is significantly higher than those statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I have driven along canal banks and gotten food to mothers. That’s what we do because they need it.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval has many friends who are also young mothers. While she went regularly to see an OB/GYN during her pregnancy, she said none of her friends did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe because they didn’t have time,” she said. And this is one of the biggest challenges Chin’s public health team faces, emphasizing the importance of prenatal care when women are struggling to get by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a higher incidence for teen moms to have a pre-term birth,” Chin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reaching full gestational age is important, she said, because when babies are born premature, the baby doesn’t have the full time to form in utero and it also affects their respiratory status. A pre-term baby is at higher risk for complications early in life because “they have immature neuro systems,” Chin said. “Things are still forming, it’s very difficult for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chin’s team can’t get to every pregnant mom, which is one of the problems when the numbers of impoverished families is so high in one place. “We’re trying,” Chin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Al Shareef’s clinic, the Golden Valley Health Centers (GVHC), serves primarily impoverished families in Merced and the Central Valley. It has many small outposts and a sprawling, campuslike main facility in downtown Merced. It’s a one-stop shop where medical, dental and mental health care can be obtained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The centers’ patients largely have their medical insurance covered by the state, with some federal and county funds chipped in. Merced’s Health and Human services office counted a monthly average of about 130,000 children receiving Medi-Cal, the government provided health insurance, for 2017-2018 .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the Merced County public health department, GVHC has a program of community health workers who go into the community and help connect parents with pediatricians. They also go to high schools where teen moms are studying and lead workshops on parenting and managing stress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Al Shareef said he will stay on top of things with Lexie and will make sure her parents have a ride to the hospital to get the tests done. Yet he can’t help with child care for her other four children while they go, nor lost wages for Lexie’s dad, who will have to miss work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s definitely challenging,” he said, as he typed up the referral for Lexie’s ultrasound and other tests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Deepa Fernandes is an Early Childhood reporting fellow at Pacific Oaks College, which is funded in part by First 5 LA.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "these-invasive-20-pound-rodents-could-wreak-havoc-on-california-agriculture",
"title": "These Invasive 20-Pound Rodents Could Wreak Havoc on California Agriculture",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]M[/dropcap]erced County sweet potato farmer Stan Silva hadn’t even heard the word “nutria” until a few months ago. He’s still never seen one, but he’s worried about the damage these 20-pound rodents with big orange buck teeth could do in California if they’re not eradicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be devastating,” Silva says. “They can basically ruin the ag industry here — they get in your fields, burrow into your canal ways, your waterways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can also tear up crops and levees, making the state’s water infrastructure more vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708871\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11708871\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron and Stan Silva at the packing plant for their family farm, Doreva Produce. Their family has been farming in Merced County for over 100 years.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaron and Stan Silva at the packing plant for their family farm, Doreva Produce. Their family has been farming in Merced County for over 100 years. \u003ccite>(Lisa Morehouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nutria aren’t native to California, or the United States. Fur farmers brought the South American rodent to Southern California in the late 1800s as an attempt to make an affordable mink alternative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite multiple attempts, the nutria fur business never took off — but the rodents went feral. California’s Department of Food and Agriculture determined that they were eradicated in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last year, a few \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11649794/california-officials-set-up-invasive-swamp-rodent-hotline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were spotted again in Merced County\u003c/a>, and they’re multiplying. Nutria can have up to 200 babies a year. By this April, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had to create a task force. Now, the rodents are on the move, north toward the San Joaquin Delta, California’s most important water source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just a menace,” Silva says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is why, for the last few months, the Silva family has given away thousands of pounds of what they grow because what’s most at threat for the Silvas — their sweet potatoes — just happen to be unlikely weapons in the fight against the nutria scourge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708874\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11708874\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Silvas are one of a few farming families in Merced County giving away their produce to help fight an invasive pest. \u003ccite>(Angela Johnston/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stan Silva’s grandparents came to the Central Valley from the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal, in the early 1900s, and started farming on small plots. Now, the \u003ca href=\"http://dorevaproduce.com/\">Silva family farm\u003c/a> grows sweet potatoes on 850 acres and supplies the largest retailers in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We dump ‘em in our wash tank here, they continue on through the conveyor, through the heater, and the ladies on the other end are sorting and packing to go to market,” Stan Silva says as he walks around the packing facility with his son and grandson — three generations of farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the back is a huge gyro machine, which processes 30 bags of sweet potatoes in a minute. Grandson Rueger Silva is in charge of its operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11708881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sweet potatoes at the Silva farm make their way to the cleaning tank. \u003ccite>(Angela Johnston/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m only 18, but my dad had a heart attack so I had to come back and help with everything,” he says as he darts around the machine, pressing buttons and checking the conveyor belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late summer, 44-year-old Aaron Silva had a massive heart attack that left him hospitalized for a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Rueger] left college to come back to help on the ranch until his father gets further along here,” Stan Silva says proudly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron Silva is still recovering from a brain injury that was a side effect of the heart attack. He says he’s having to relearn longtime customers’ names and faces. But, he says, he didn’t lose any memory of the process of farming and packing sweet potatoes. Farming is in his blood, and he doesn’t want anything to threaten it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just 20 miles from the packing plant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/\">Department of Fish and Wildlife\u003c/a> biologist Sean McCain is spying on some nutria making nests in a marsh full of tule reeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708876\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11708876\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean McCain, from California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, points out nutria habitat. \u003ccite>(Lisa Morehouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think they know we’re here yet,” he whispers as he sneaks up to the edge of the marsh. He points out a few of the rodents, which look like a cross between rats and beavers, with scaly tails, webbed feet and big orange bucked teeth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McCain first saw a family of nutria here two weeks ago, and since then he’s been coming back to this spot almost every day to check on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been watching the vegetation recede away from the middle of the pond,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nutria can eat up to 25 percent of their body weight in one day. They munch on the roots of green duckweeds, cattails and tule reeds. If they clear-cut an entire marsh like this one, they put all the birds and frogs and other species that depend on it at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nutria problem is potentially so big that the Department of Fish and Wildlife is pulling staff from all over the state for on-the-ground training.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11649829/swamp-creatures\">Swamp Creatures\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11649829/swamp-creatures\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/02/calnutria_021318_final-1180x1180.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>At another pond, the team hasn’t seen any nutria in the flesh, so they’re setting up a wildlife camera to see if they can capture them on tape, and creating a feeding platform within the camera’s range.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They wade into chest-deep water, yank reeds out of the marsh to make a little nest, and put bait on a wooden platform: bright orange slices of sweet potato to lure the rodents. It turns out, nutria love its color and taste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McCain does this kind of work all day long: trying to get eyes on nutria, assessing their habitat and checking cameras to determine the right place for traps. When we get back to the car, he plugs an SD card from one of the wildlife cameras into his laptop and we watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There we go,” he says as a big family of nutria sneak onto the screen. “Those are adult nutria, and that one just stole our sweet potato.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the team has confirmed a big family of nutria in this swamp, they’ll send in trappers, who will set traps all over the area to start to eradicate this population one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11708867\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has captured just over 330 nutria so far.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has captured just over 330 nutria so far. \u003ccite>(Angela Johnston/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s part of a larger plan taking place at the Nutria Incident Command Center at an old hunting check station near Los Banos, California. Greg Gerstenberg holds down the fort here as the Incident Command chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the deep freeze out back, Gerstenberg rummages around for frozen nutria. He pulls out nutria heads and bottles of their urine — helpful for trapping. They’re keeping these for training, and they give some to other departments for taxidermy and display in their offices, in case a farmer wanted to come and see what one looked like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re also looking at how other states have dealt with the problem. Louisiana is offering a bounty to hunters to counter their out-of-control nutria problem. Gerstenberg is modeling California’s efforts on Chesapeake Bay’s, where they successfully eradicated nutria.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11660045/californias-lost-wetlands-reborn-thanks-to-central-valley-rice-farms\">California’s Lost Wetlands Get Help From Sacramento Valley Rice Farms\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11660045/californias-lost-wetlands-reborn-thanks-to-central-valley-rice-farms\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/SnowGeeseOnRice-1180x770.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>On the walls of the command center, huge maps of the Central Valley and San Joaquin Delta are covered with pink, yellow and blue dots showing where nutria have been spotted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gerstenberg says, after capturing nutria on camera in the southern Delta, Fish and Wildlife will pull their resources from Merced County and create a sort of fire line just north of this sighting, limiting and pushing the nutria out before they start to multiply in the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has trapped over 330 nutria since April. Gerstenberg says he hopes they’re not in the thousands, but he has no way to confirm or estimate the nutria’s number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is to remove them quicker than they’re reproducing,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story first aired on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/programs/crosscurrents#stream/0\">KALW’s Crosscurrents\u003c/a>. It was produced in collaboration with the \u003ca href=\"https://thefern.org/\">Food & Environment Reporting Network\u003c/a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Silva family, longtime Central Valley sweet potato farmers, are donating 5 tons of their product to help capture and eradicate destructive nutria.",
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"title": "These Invasive 20-Pound Rodents Could Wreak Havoc on California Agriculture | KQED",
"description": "The Silva family, longtime Central Valley sweet potato farmers, are donating 5 tons of their product to help capture and eradicate destructive nutria.",
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"headline": "These Invasive 20-Pound Rodents Could Wreak Havoc on California Agriculture",
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"nprByline": "\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/lmorehouse\">Lisa Morehouse\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr />\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/angelajohnston\">Angela Johnston\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">M\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>erced County sweet potato farmer Stan Silva hadn’t even heard the word “nutria” until a few months ago. He’s still never seen one, but he’s worried about the damage these 20-pound rodents with big orange buck teeth could do in California if they’re not eradicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be devastating,” Silva says. “They can basically ruin the ag industry here — they get in your fields, burrow into your canal ways, your waterways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can also tear up crops and levees, making the state’s water infrastructure more vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708871\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11708871\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Aaron and Stan Silva at the packing plant for their family farm, Doreva Produce. Their family has been farming in Merced County for over 100 years.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34234_Aaron-and-Stan-Silva-at-the-packing-plant-for-their-family-farm-Doreva-Produce.-Their-familys-been-farming-in-Merced-County-for-over-100-years.-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaron and Stan Silva at the packing plant for their family farm, Doreva Produce. Their family has been farming in Merced County for over 100 years. \u003ccite>(Lisa Morehouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nutria aren’t native to California, or the United States. Fur farmers brought the South American rodent to Southern California in the late 1800s as an attempt to make an affordable mink alternative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite multiple attempts, the nutria fur business never took off — but the rodents went feral. California’s Department of Food and Agriculture determined that they were eradicated in the 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last year, a few \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11649794/california-officials-set-up-invasive-swamp-rodent-hotline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">were spotted again in Merced County\u003c/a>, and they’re multiplying. Nutria can have up to 200 babies a year. By this April, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had to create a task force. Now, the rodents are on the move, north toward the San Joaquin Delta, California’s most important water source.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just a menace,” Silva says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is why, for the last few months, the Silva family has given away thousands of pounds of what they grow because what’s most at threat for the Silvas — their sweet potatoes — just happen to be unlikely weapons in the fight against the nutria scourge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708874\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11708874\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34239_The-Silvas-are-one-of-a-few-farming-families-in-Merced-County-giving-away-their-produce-to-help-fight-an-invasive-pest-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Silvas are one of a few farming families in Merced County giving away their produce to help fight an invasive pest. \u003ccite>(Angela Johnston/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stan Silva’s grandparents came to the Central Valley from the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal, in the early 1900s, and started farming on small plots. Now, the \u003ca href=\"http://dorevaproduce.com/\">Silva family farm\u003c/a> grows sweet potatoes on 850 acres and supplies the largest retailers in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We dump ‘em in our wash tank here, they continue on through the conveyor, through the heater, and the ladies on the other end are sorting and packing to go to market,” Stan Silva says as he walks around the packing facility with his son and grandson — three generations of farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the back is a huge gyro machine, which processes 30 bags of sweet potatoes in a minute. Grandson Rueger Silva is in charge of its operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11708881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34237_Sweet-potatoes-at-the-Silva-farm-make-their-way-to-the-cleaning-tank-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sweet potatoes at the Silva farm make their way to the cleaning tank. \u003ccite>(Angela Johnston/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m only 18, but my dad had a heart attack so I had to come back and help with everything,” he says as he darts around the machine, pressing buttons and checking the conveyor belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late summer, 44-year-old Aaron Silva had a massive heart attack that left him hospitalized for a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Rueger] left college to come back to help on the ranch until his father gets further along here,” Stan Silva says proudly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aaron Silva is still recovering from a brain injury that was a side effect of the heart attack. He says he’s having to relearn longtime customers’ names and faces. But, he says, he didn’t lose any memory of the process of farming and packing sweet potatoes. Farming is in his blood, and he doesn’t want anything to threaten it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just 20 miles from the packing plant, \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/\">Department of Fish and Wildlife\u003c/a> biologist Sean McCain is spying on some nutria making nests in a marsh full of tule reeds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708876\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11708876\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34235_Sean-McCain-from-Californias-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlife-points-out-nutria-habitat.-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean McCain, from California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, points out nutria habitat. \u003ccite>(Lisa Morehouse/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think they know we’re here yet,” he whispers as he sneaks up to the edge of the marsh. He points out a few of the rodents, which look like a cross between rats and beavers, with scaly tails, webbed feet and big orange bucked teeth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McCain first saw a family of nutria here two weeks ago, and since then he’s been coming back to this spot almost every day to check on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been watching the vegetation recede away from the middle of the pond,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nutria can eat up to 25 percent of their body weight in one day. They munch on the roots of green duckweeds, cattails and tule reeds. If they clear-cut an entire marsh like this one, they put all the birds and frogs and other species that depend on it at risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nutria problem is potentially so big that the Department of Fish and Wildlife is pulling staff from all over the state for on-the-ground training.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11649829/swamp-creatures\">Swamp Creatures\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11649829/swamp-creatures\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/02/calnutria_021318_final-1180x1180.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>At another pond, the team hasn’t seen any nutria in the flesh, so they’re setting up a wildlife camera to see if they can capture them on tape, and creating a feeding platform within the camera’s range.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They wade into chest-deep water, yank reeds out of the marsh to make a little nest, and put bait on a wooden platform: bright orange slices of sweet potato to lure the rodents. It turns out, nutria love its color and taste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McCain does this kind of work all day long: trying to get eyes on nutria, assessing their habitat and checking cameras to determine the right place for traps. When we get back to the car, he plugs an SD card from one of the wildlife cameras into his laptop and we watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There we go,” he says as a big family of nutria sneak onto the screen. “Those are adult nutria, and that one just stole our sweet potato.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that the team has confirmed a big family of nutria in this swamp, they’ll send in trappers, who will set traps all over the area to start to eradicate this population one by one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11708867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11708867\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has captured just over 330 nutria so far.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/11/RS34236_California-Department-of-Fish-and-Wildlifes-Greg-Gerstenberg-shows-off-a-frozen-nutria-head.-Theyve-captured-just-over-330-of-the-invasive-species-so-far..-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has captured just over 330 nutria so far. \u003ccite>(Angela Johnston/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s part of a larger plan taking place at the Nutria Incident Command Center at an old hunting check station near Los Banos, California. Greg Gerstenberg holds down the fort here as the Incident Command chief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the deep freeze out back, Gerstenberg rummages around for frozen nutria. He pulls out nutria heads and bottles of their urine — helpful for trapping. They’re keeping these for training, and they give some to other departments for taxidermy and display in their offices, in case a farmer wanted to come and see what one looked like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re also looking at how other states have dealt with the problem. Louisiana is offering a bounty to hunters to counter their out-of-control nutria problem. Gerstenberg is modeling California’s efforts on Chesapeake Bay’s, where they successfully eradicated nutria.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11660045/californias-lost-wetlands-reborn-thanks-to-central-valley-rice-farms\">California’s Lost Wetlands Get Help From Sacramento Valley Rice Farms\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11660045/californias-lost-wetlands-reborn-thanks-to-central-valley-rice-farms\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/SnowGeeseOnRice-1180x770.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/a>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>On the walls of the command center, huge maps of the Central Valley and San Joaquin Delta are covered with pink, yellow and blue dots showing where nutria have been spotted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gerstenberg says, after capturing nutria on camera in the southern Delta, Fish and Wildlife will pull their resources from Merced County and create a sort of fire line just north of this sighting, limiting and pushing the nutria out before they start to multiply in the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state has trapped over 330 nutria since April. Gerstenberg says he hopes they’re not in the thousands, but he has no way to confirm or estimate the nutria’s number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is to remove them quicker than they’re reproducing,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story first aired on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/programs/crosscurrents#stream/0\">KALW’s Crosscurrents\u003c/a>. It was produced in collaboration with the \u003ca href=\"https://thefern.org/\">Food & Environment Reporting Network\u003c/a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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},
"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"onourwatch": {
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"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"on-the-media": {
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
},
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
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